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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29288952">"How'd we get so deep from just fighting about bubble tea?"</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/harpyloon/pseuds/harpyloon'>harpyloon</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>F/M, Fluff and Angst, Milk Tea, Romance</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-02-08</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-02-08</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 05:47:57</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,479</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29288952</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/harpyloon/pseuds/harpyloon</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Fred Weasley and OC Female character fight about bubble tea and it gets kinda angsty but not too much</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Fred Weasley/Original Female Character(s)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>"How'd we get so deep from just fighting about bubble tea?"</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>i have NO idea how this came to be but it just exists now so might as well. was supposed to be a Fred x Reader thing but i'm not too confident with my 2nd person writing skills yet. Viktoria is my Fred Weasley simp friend but she can also be you! </p><p>also wanted to incorporate a bit of how Hermione mentioned the twins slightly affecting Ron's confidence in canon HP. testing out the waters so let me know what you think!</p><p>hope there wasn't too much angst on here.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"<em>What in Merlin's pants is this supposed to be?"</em></p><p>Viktoria giggled enthusiastically against a wide-rimmed straw stuck between her teeth, watching Fred Weasley's perplexed face as he struggled to ingest the contents in his mouth.</p><p>"Swallow," she commanded.</p><p>Fred quirked an eyebrow, pausing his chewing. "Well, that's what I sai—</p><p>He grunted as she took a swipe to his shin.</p><p>"Swallow," Viktoria said again, attempting a glare this time, but mirth was swimming around in her eyes.</p><p>Frowning and chewing with performative haste, Fred swallowed loudly and obediently (to Viktoria's delight) and stuck out his tongue like a good schoolboy, displaying an empty mouth.</p><p>She smiled cheekily, "Well? How is it?"</p><p>Instead of answering, Fred brought his wand out and pointed it to his tongue.</p><p>"<em>Aguame</em>—“</p><p>“NO, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?”</p><p>Viktoria snatched Fred’s wand immediately, sneaking frantic glances around and shoving it inside her coat.</p><p>“Are you mental?!” she whisper-yelled to her boyfriend who had a frown on his face.</p><p>“But I'm parched,” grumbled Fred as Viktoria pushed him towards a fairly deserted alley adjacent to the main street.</p><p>Covent Garden was bustling with Muggles. Seeing as Easter was fast approaching, boutiques were filled to the brim with shoppers queuing for last-minute holiday hauls, and everyone was out and about, basking in the spring breeze.</p><p>A good-looking pair of lovebirds sipping on matching bubble tea beverages, walking down James Street hand-in-hand was nothing close to unusual on a cheerful sunny day such as today. What <em>would've been</em> unusual was if one of the pair suddenly shot out cold, freshwater into his mouth from a wooden stick. That would've stirred some heads.</p><p>"You're <em>parched</em>?" Viktoria's eyes were wide and exasperated. "How many times do you have to pull something like that in the middle of a bloody <em>Muggle street—"</em></p><p>"It was you who made me swallow it!" said Fred defensively.</p><p>She scoffed, "Oh please. You're being dramatic."</p><p>"Dramatic? These things taste like Dungbombs!" he waved his still-full cup of bubble tea, shoving it up his girlfriend's face as if it's committed some horrendous crime. Black little pearls were swimming around between Viktoria's eyes.</p><p>She shoves him off, offended.</p><p>"Excuse me? <em>Dungbombs</em>? Have you actually <em>eaten</em> Dungbombs?"</p><p>"Well, no, but these sure look like 'em."</p><p>Viktoria gasped.</p><p>"You did not," she glared threateningly at Fred.</p><p>"Also," his face frowned in disgust, "who—in their right mind—would put <em>ice</em> in <em>tea</em>? Barbaric is what this is!"</p><p>Viktoria's mood was getting fouler by the second. She had been excited. So incredibly excited to have Fred finally try one of her favorite drinks in the world. Her mother was a muggle, and her father a Curse Breaker—where the job came with travelling; when they had lived briefly in Thailand when she was thirteen, they couldn't get her to stop drinking bubble tea every single day.</p><p>"I can't believe you said that," she said.</p><p>"What? The truth?"</p><p>"The entire world doesn't drink tea the same way the British do, Fred!"</p><p>"Well too bad for them then! No one makes tea like Mum does."</p><p>"This is different. This is about trying something new!"</p><p>"Well, I don't want new!"</p><p>
  <em>"UUUUUGRRRH."</em>
</p><p>With a loud groan, she snatched the cup being dangled in front of her face and stomped away angrily.</p><p>"HEY— Where are you going?" Fred called to her retreating back.</p><p>The good-looking pair of lovebirds were no longer a subject of longing stares as passersby dodged the now bitter-looking woman storming down the Muggle street, sipping from two cups of bubble tea simultaneously, her boyfriend running to keep up with her.</p><p>"Viktoria," Fred called out as reasonably projected as possible. They were making a scene and he knew it. He didn't mind the attention when he was being funny or when people stared at him and Viktoria hand-in-hand. He loved showing her off. Not like this though. Not when she was walking away from him.</p><p>"Viktoria," he was jogging next to her now, "slow down."</p><p>"Sod off and go drown in your Mum's tea, Fred Weasley," she growled without so much as a glance in his direction. "I hate you so much right now."</p><p>"Will you stop walking for one second?"</p><p>She brisked even faster.</p><p>"Okay, okay, I'm sor—," he dodged running into a stroller and an angry mother who chastised him. After apologizing profusely at the woman who was immediately charmed by the Weasley smile, he glanced up and saw that Viktoria was nowhere to be found.</p><p>"Shite."</p><p>Running down James Street, he paused through every alley, searching, passing by the boutiques they've previously visited earlier in the day. Skidding to a halt in front of the bubble tea shop, he entered and scanned the small space.</p><p>"Back for another already?"</p><p>The woman who had served them earlier was smiling at Fred behind the counter, "Original Bubble for your lady?"</p><p>"Uh," he was still panting, "er—no thank you, madame. I was wondering if—"</p><p>The woman laughed.</p><p>"Just one for her today then? That's a first. On her best days she can do three!" she seemed to laugh at a memory.</p><p>"Er—sorry?"</p><p>The woman shook her head in amusement, "Your little lady would swell her digestion herself if she could, only if it meant she could drink pints of these devils!" she gestured to the gallons of ready-made tea behind her. "It's a sight. She practically inhales it. I'm lactose-intolerant you see. Watching her, I live vicariously!"</p><p>The woman laughed again and pointed to a window in the corner of her shop, "Sits over on that cushion every Sunday when she's back from school."</p><p>Fred's breathing was calming down, but his heart was thumping faster.</p><p>"She nicked yours 'in't she?" she asked. "That why you're back for another?"</p><p>Eyes glued to the small corner booth by the window, Fred answered with a question, "She likes bubble tea then?"</p><p>"Likes?" the woman almost scoffed, "Darling, I could say she's a shop benefactor with the number of cuppas that girl downs! She told me once that our tea is the closest thing to those authentic ones you find in— where was that? Taiwan? Anyway—"</p><p>"Thailand," breathed Fred, and dread was closing in on him. Remorse slowly working its way to his erratic heart. "She—she lived there for a while. Told me all about the..."</p><p>
  <em>The tea.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"I'll take you I swear," she told him as they walked up the stairs to the Gryffindor common room, "it's almost as good as the ones in Bangkok. NOT AS AMAZING, but good enough!"</em>
</p><p>Viktoria had moved to Hogwarts when they were in their fifth year, straight from Thailand; carrying stories of her Curse Breaker father, speaking fluent Gobbledegook in Charms that made her a Flitwick favorite, and going on and on about how the school kitchens didn't have black squishy pearls swimming in cold tea...</p><p>Sighing, Fred turned to the woman who was still beaming at him.</p><p>"One Original Bubble please."</p><p> </p><p>✦ ✦ ✦ ✦</p><p> </p><p>Viktoria watched churchgoers walk past her from the bench where she sat near St. Paul's Chapel, nibbling on her straw mindlessly.</p><p>The two cups of bubble tea were long empty. Her stomach was rumbling quietly from the aggressive intake of lactose, and her foul mood dulled into a solemn ache.</p><p>She remembered when she was still back in Hogwarts a few days ago, packing for the Easter holidays. Recalling her long list of "must-dos" with Fred that she had planned out. This was their second holiday as a couple, after getting together right before Fred and George decided to drop out mid-year of their sixth. They wrote together all summer long, and she had spent the following Christmas at the Burrow.</p><p>With You-Know-Who back in the picture, nowhere was safe to spend anything these days. But a Muggle area gave a supposedly wider berth from danger. This was why the two had planned to meet her family this time, introduce Fred to her mum and dad, and bring him around Muggle London.</p><p>
  <em>"She's lovely," he whispered in her ear as her mother stood up to refill all their bowls with her homemade Sheperd's Pie.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Viktoria smiled, "She is when she's full."</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"Just like you then," said Fred with a smirk.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Her foot met his toe and he coughed out a sharp grunt.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"Say that again?"</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"You are as lovely as your mother, my sweet," he mumbled back and gave a strained smile to her Curse Breaker father when he peered at them curiously.</em>
</p><p>"Lovely my big fat foot," Viktoria grumbled under her breath, poking the bottom of her empty cup with the straw aggressively. "Stupid, insensitive, red-headed <em>git</em>. Can't even pretend. <em>Can't even try to pretend to like it. I'm</em> supportive, aren't I? I even <em>offer</em> to be a guinea pig for the Wheezes. Remember when I grew a stubble because of that potion?" she was talking to her cup now, remembering being the human experiment for <em>Magical Moustache Miracle Stubble Grow</em>.</p><p>"AND (poke) TO THINK (poke) I WAS SO (even more aggressive poke) EXCITED!"</p><p>A straw-shaped hole peered up at her from the bottom of the cup.</p><p>"UGH, I don't even know why I'm mad!"</p><p>Someone cleared their throat gently behind her.</p><p>Huffing haughtily and knowing exactly who it was, Viktoria ignored the sound and continued to glare at the throng of Muggles walking past. She would not give in. She won't.</p><p>A long shadow loomed over her and sat on the bench, giving them a respectable amount of space in between.</p><p>The small square they were in was rumbling with activity. But there was nothing but silence in their own little bubble.</p><p>
  <em>Sluuuurp.</em>
</p><p>She won't look. No. Spiting her, he is. Making fun. Always making fun—</p><p>
  <em>SLUUUUUUUUUURP.</em>
</p><p>Chancing upon him at the corner of her eye, Viktoria saw Fred sipping on a cup of Original Bubble, frowning as he maneuvered his straw to catch the pearls that were swimming away.</p><p>"You don't have to do that."</p><p>Fred looked up, straw in mouth, "Well, how am I supposed to catch them then? Sneaky little gorgons—"</p><p>"No," sighed Viktoria, "I mean you don't have to drink that. I'm not forcing you to do anything you don't want to."</p><p>"You're not forcing me at a—"</p><p>"Cut it out, Fred."</p><p>Silence.</p><p>Children were running around nearby, feeding Pigeons with small pieces of bread from their lunch helpings. A little girl slipped. There were no tears though. She continued to roll around the pavement, shrieking with delight, to her mother's chagrin.</p><p>She heard him sigh beside her.</p><p>"I'm a git."</p><p>Silence.</p><p>"You kept going on about this all year last. Never stopped. It—it slipped my mind."</p><p>Silence.</p><p>"I'm a git and I deserve to be trolled."</p><p>Silence.</p><p>"I'm a filthy pile of dung and I subject myself to eating toadstools for the rest of my life."</p><p>"You are <em>not</em> eating <em>toadstool</em>," Viktoria glared at Fred who held his breath as she finally spoke. "I will not snog a toadstool eating wizard."</p><p>Fred's eyes turned misty, "You still wanna snog me?"</p><p>"When you're not being an absolute arse, I do."</p><p>Closing the gap between them the tiniest bit, Fred said, "I'm sorry, Viktoria."</p><p>It took a few breaths before she gave a defeated sigh, "This is stupid," she muttered. "This is stupid, I don't even know why I'm mad—"</p><p>"I do," interrupted Fred. "I know and I deserve it. I was a git. I wasn't paying attention and I was completely insensitive. You always," he was struggling, "you always feel things around you, even people. You read rooms clearly, you keep me in check. My mouth— I— I can't control it sometimes I— I say hurtful things to people I love without meaning them."</p><p>Viktoria was looking at him now, observing Fred's shameful downcasted eyes.</p><p>He blinked a couple of times before continuing, "Hermione confronted me once about it, about how the small things I say affected Ron loads. And I— I didn't want to believe her at first. Shrugged her off-quite rudely to be honest. But when I saw him play for Keeper I..."</p><p>There was a snitch-sized lump down Viktoria's throat and it was preventing any form of speech. She knew this. They had both sat down and talked about each other's flaws and hubris awhile back, after getting into a massive fight before Christmas at the Burrow. She was familiar with Fred's difficulty with words, his teasing getting too far at times. But he was good. She knew this as well. His affection coursed differently. And this was precisely why she loved him.</p><p>Words failing her, she grabbed his bubble teacup and took a long sip. His eyes held hers and she took his hand.</p><p>"Go on," she encouraged.</p><p>He took a deep breath, "Well, you know what happened. He was all over the place, Ron. Couldn't save a single Quaffle, quite unlike our matches in our backyard. George and I knew he was good. Merlin, even <em>Ginny</em> knew. But he wavered on the pitch. He didn't have the guts. And I had a lot to do with that."</p><p>Fred brought Viktoria's hand to his lips, "I'm doing better. You said so yourself," she gave him a teary smile, "but I— I slip and I'm sorry. I'll have more tact. I know it's the little words I overlook, and I'll work on that now. I swear I'll be more careful and— I just don't want to drive you away. You most of all."</p><p>Silently and without preamble, Viktoria stood. Fred blinked up at her, and from where she gazed, she saw the mist and remorse swimming all over his enchanting brown eyes.</p><p>"Oh, Fred Weasley," she smiled shyly down at him, brushing strands of red away from his forehead. "How'd we get so deep from just fighting about bubble tea?"</p><p>He gave a hearty guffaw, the signature Fred laughter that made her heart leap. "Because I'm a drama queen is why."</p><p>Pulling her to his lap, she settled on his chest, her head propped against his cheek.</p><p>"You're a good man, my Freddie," said Viktoria. His arms tighten around her. "You're the sweetest, most handsome, and you snog me so well."</p><p>Fred's laugh was contagious, his chest vibrating against her back. She grinned.</p><p>"And you were right. You are doing so well. I forgive you. And I'm sorry too."</p><p>She turned her head and rested it below his chin, her nose propped against his jaw, inhaling while her eyes fluttered shut. The sweet, gun-powdered scent of Fred Weasley. All bruised and perfect for her and her only.</p><p>"You know," started Fred, breaking their small silence as he stole a sip from the cup, "these aren't half bad."</p><p>Viktoria rolled her eyes, "Oh stop."</p><p>"I'm serious! I should've given them more teeth. I reckon it's all in the chew."</p><p>"Yeah?"</p><p>"Mhmm. We could make something out of this for Wheezes."</p><p>"No."</p><p>"Edible Dungbombs?"</p><p>Viktoria groaned.</p><p>Unbelievable.</p>
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